Today's communication networks provide information transport of voice, video and data to both residential and commercial customers with more and more of those customers being connected by fiber optic cables. Current network designs differ among carriers, or service providers, and are influenced by such variables as legacy equipment and architectures, past and present infrastructure investments and network types. These network types include the Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON), the Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) and the Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial (HFC) networks, to name just a few.
A fiber optic cable (or “fiber bundle”) includes a number of individual optical fibers, each of which may be used to transmit significant quantities of information. Some fiber optic network designs include the use of passive components such as optical splitters and wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) filters as a way of creating and deploying a more cost effective and efficient access network.
Telecommunications equipment racks often include sliding support shelves or drawers for housing and organizing optical hardware and optical fiber cables. These shelves are designed to protect the optical equipment and optical fiber cables, but should also be designed to provide convenient access to the optical components while keeping the components organized.
Some of these support shelves include one or more bulkhead adapter panels, which facilitate connections between various optical components. The adapter plates, which are typically secured to mounting flanges may have several features (e.g., openings) to receiver and organize fiber optic connectors, and are often position within a storage shelf so as to segregate components and cables into two or more sections. These adapter panels are often removable and replaceable, so that adapter panels customized for a particular application may be installed. Typically, one or more “blank” adapter plates, i.e., adapter plates having no openings for receiving optical fiber connectors, are installed when there is no need for their connector attachment features.